F1GD 4120 - Thinking like a policy-maker:an introduction to policy problems in complex international environment

***UPDATED for 2026/27***

This course is a problem analysis driven introduction to the practice of public policy concentrating on the fundamental connection between theory and the everyday practice of the muddling through. The central aim is to provide critical building blocks of the discipline for understanding complex national and international processes, in this sense this course bridges the divide between abstract theoretical models, policy making analytical tools and international/transnational dynamics of power concentration and institutionalization of policy fields. The course will raise fundamental questions of authority, power, interests, and legitimacy of a rich set of international actors (IO, INGOs, Tech Platforms, Consulting Companies, philanthropic agents among others) but most importantly, will engage students into thinking like public-policy makers operating in complex multi-level environments. By questioning the very justification of public action, its relevance in an age of increasing substitution by powerful transnational technology driven forces, its motivations and apparent stability/disruption, the course will seek to transcend a common place understanding of a “disrupted world” or instability of the international system, by revealing a continuum of adaptation and transformation of international governance. Issues that cut across borders and usher power cognitive dissonances will be particularly raised, pointing to their intractability by bounded national /local public action systems, becoming the facto major global challenges, such as climate change, trade wars, pandemics and the emergence of new policy arenas.

Learning Outcomes

• Acquire a foundational understanding of the policy-making: the motivations of public action today, the challenge of coordination, interests and information overflow.
• Thinking like a policy-maker: from method to design instruments to contingency.
• Understand the motivations of policy stakeholders within policy sectors, accounting for stability and change
• Understanding the challenge of landing international policy frameworks: the dynamics of policy transfers and implementation at the national and local level
• Understand the array of policy resources available for policy makers today, their transformation

6- Acquiring critical thinking tools for interpreting evidence and its limitations.

Professional Skills

• Learn how to formulate a policy research question
• Learn how to map ideas and interests and to ponder their importance in the policy process
• Learn how to characterize policy networks.
• Learn how to map international organizations and the dynamics of policy regime transformation
• Learn how to establish long time policy trajectories

Moodle comments after production of each assignment.

• In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Online learning activities: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 10 hours a week / 120 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester